Angie Chan fill-your-walls.com
I was born in Singapore and am an accountant, qualified in the UK but worked for 17 years
in the oil and gas industry around the world, mainly in commercial business. I have lived
in 5 countries and half my life overseas.
Art and me
My relationship with art has been somewhat patchy until now. I enjoy the visual and
always felt a desire to collect pieces from different cultures during my travels - this
includes sculpture, painting, thangkas, rugs and furniture.
I would be the first to admit that I am no expert at art, but I know what I like and I feel that
collecting art sometimes makes me feel inadequate because I can't make out good art
and bad art. I know some people feel like that too and I have always wanted to create an
environment where this stigma does not exist.
Involvement in art
When I lived in Brisbane in Australia I was involved as a Treasurer in a non-profit
organisation called Hands on Art. They provided art classes to children to develop their
visual art skills. It was a challenging environment to raise funding from different sources
and to make ends meet. It was both a sobering but enriching experience to see art
creations from children and subsequently see them develop their career.
This experience had opened my eyes to how art skills in a person can be left untapped
and completely unknown to the beholder or nurtured to something quite spectacular. This
experience left a sub-conscious awareness in me.
When my husband and I moved back to Singapore (late 2007), we were setting up our
home and wanted to buy some local affordable art but it was not very difficult to find. At
about the same time, I started to take up painting classes at My Art Space and met
Chankerk who had a very special way in communicating and transferring his art skills. I
really liked the way he operates by making art a way of life and his easy going manner put
me at ease with learning a skill I was sure did not exist in me. All this became the
genesis of my business idea.
Vision
I wanted to create a platform for emerging artists to showcase their art and at the same
time create an environment whereby people from all walks of life are able to enjoy and
collect affordable art without the stigma of needing to be an expert. I wanted to attract
artists who are just starting up, feeling their way around, but not yet established
themselves. The platform has to appeal to artists of this current generation and hence
has to be the web medium, but the reality of seeing the real art in our gallery is as
important. We have today created this virtual gallery with www.fill-your-walls.com and our
physical gallery at Tanjong Pagar. We share our premises with My Art Space to offer the
full suite of an art experience.
My vision is to support emerging artists in their journey, encourage them to create
break-through art. At the same time collectors have an opportunity to spot new talent and
support them by showcasing their art at home and at work. I am motivated to make this
work for both artists and collectors.
Art scene in Singapore compared to other countries
I have lived in five countries and visited many more. Please bear in mind that my
observations are that of an amateur and represents that of a layman. The art scene varies
from place to place.
Art in Europe has a great deal of history and is part of the fabric of society. It is seen as just
as important to a functioning culture as science and economics. In many parts of Asia,
where the standard of living is not so high or where a higher standard of living has been
recently achieved, art has much more of a secondary role as it is seen as a luxury and a
lower priority when compared to making a family financially secure.
In Western society I like the way art is so accessible and many corporate entities support
artists in various forms.
In Australia and Brisbane in particular, affordable art pieces by emerging artists are very
accessible. I was particularly impressed by the effort made by Australia to nurture and
promote aboriginal art. It is, after all, the art that has evolved through Australian history as a
result of living in that environment.
Whilst it is always great to see art inspired by life in all parts of the World I would like to do
what I can to allow local Singapore artists to develop and exhibit their work so that the art
inspired by life in this part of the World can have a platform.
I was born in Singapore and am an accountant, qualified in the UK but worked for 17 years
in the oil and gas industry around the world, mainly in commercial business. I have lived
in 5 countries and half my life overseas.
Art and me
My relationship with art has been somewhat patchy until now. I enjoy the visual and
always felt a desire to collect pieces from different cultures during my travels - this
includes sculpture, painting, thangkas, rugs and furniture.
I would be the first to admit that I am no expert at art, but I know what I like and I feel that
collecting art sometimes makes me feel inadequate because I can't make out good art
and bad art. I know some people feel like that too and I have always wanted to create an
environment where this stigma does not exist.
Involvement in art
When I lived in Brisbane in Australia I was involved as a Treasurer in a non-profit
organisation called Hands on Art. They provided art classes to children to develop their
visual art skills. It was a challenging environment to raise funding from different sources
and to make ends meet. It was both a sobering but enriching experience to see art
creations from children and subsequently see them develop their career.
This experience had opened my eyes to how art skills in a person can be left untapped
and completely unknown to the beholder or nurtured to something quite spectacular. This
experience left a sub-conscious awareness in me.
When my husband and I moved back to Singapore (late 2007), we were setting up our
home and wanted to buy some local affordable art but it was not very difficult to find. At
about the same time, I started to take up painting classes at My Art Space and met
Chankerk who had a very special way in communicating and transferring his art skills. I
really liked the way he operates by making art a way of life and his easy going manner put
me at ease with learning a skill I was sure did not exist in me. All this became the
genesis of my business idea.
Vision
I wanted to create a platform for emerging artists to showcase their art and at the same
time create an environment whereby people from all walks of life are able to enjoy and
collect affordable art without the stigma of needing to be an expert. I wanted to attract
artists who are just starting up, feeling their way around, but not yet established
themselves. The platform has to appeal to artists of this current generation and hence
has to be the web medium, but the reality of seeing the real art in our gallery is as
important. We have today created this virtual gallery with www.fill-your-walls.com and our
physical gallery at Tanjong Pagar. We share our premises with My Art Space to offer the
full suite of an art experience.
My vision is to support emerging artists in their journey, encourage them to create
break-through art. At the same time collectors have an opportunity to spot new talent and
support them by showcasing their art at home and at work. I am motivated to make this
work for both artists and collectors.
Art scene in Singapore compared to other countries
I have lived in five countries and visited many more. Please bear in mind that my
observations are that of an amateur and represents that of a layman. The art scene varies
from place to place.
Art in Europe has a great deal of history and is part of the fabric of society. It is seen as just
as important to a functioning culture as science and economics. In many parts of Asia,
where the standard of living is not so high or where a higher standard of living has been
recently achieved, art has much more of a secondary role as it is seen as a luxury and a
lower priority when compared to making a family financially secure.
In Western society I like the way art is so accessible and many corporate entities support
artists in various forms.
In Australia and Brisbane in particular, affordable art pieces by emerging artists are very
accessible. I was particularly impressed by the effort made by Australia to nurture and
promote aboriginal art. It is, after all, the art that has evolved through Australian history as a
result of living in that environment.
Whilst it is always great to see art inspired by life in all parts of the World I would like to do
what I can to allow local Singapore artists to develop and exhibit their work so that the art
inspired by life in this part of the World can have a platform.
